Episcopal Church Proudly Proclaims Pride Month even as Church Continues to Decline

EDITORIAL

By David W. Virtue, DD | www.virtueonline.org | June 5, 2026

It is Pride Month, and the Episcopal Church—already at odds with most of the Anglican Communion’s Global South on sexuality issues—is boosting the issue in churches and cathedrals across the country, hoping perhaps to entice homosexuals who show no interest in passing through their red doors.

In Washington, Bishop Mariann Budde presided over a "Pride Eucharist," draped in a rainbow stole that seemed to weigh heavier than her crozier, declaring the diocese a sanctuary of inclusion while her parishes report yet another year of precipitous attendance drops.

In Erie, PA, the cathedral hoisted flags so massive they obscured the very cross atop the building, a fitting metaphor for a denomination that has allowed cultural politics to eclipse the Gospel message.

It is a textbook case of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. While the hierarchy focuses on intersectionality and rainbow liturgies, the faithful are walking out the back door. The strategy is baffling: by pandering to a secular culture that views organized religion with increasing indifference, the Episcopal Church is effectively abandoning its theological birthright for a mess of pottage.

They are chasing a demographic that, statistically, isn't looking for what a dying mainline denomination is selling. The irony is palpable. In their desperate bid to remain "relevant" to the shifting whims of the 21st century, they have rendered themselves spiritually irrelevant to the very people they claim to serve. As they celebrate their open-mindedness, they are presiding over an ecclesiastical collapse that no amount of bunting can disguise.

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